WATCH: Deepika Padukone On The Ellen Show

Ever since it was reported that Deepika Padukone would be making an appearance on comedienne Ellen DeGeneres’ The Ellen Show, to promote her film xXx: Return of Xander Cage, with which she makes her Hollywood debut, there has been talk about how she would measure up against Priyanka Chopra.

And while her exchange with Ellen may not have been as long (or sassy?) as Priyanka’s, Deepika did get people talking with her ‘disclosures’ on the show.

Ellen welcomed Deepika — dressed in a white Michael Kors outfit — to her show, and they began by talking about Prakash Padukone.

Ellen asked about Padukone Sr’s badminton career, and Deepika spoke of it proudly: “He played at a time in India when nobody really played professional badminton… everybody wanted to become a doctor or a lawyer, (but he was a sportsperson).”

On finding out that Deepika also played badminton, Ellen wondered if the Padukones hadn’t wanted her to follow in her father’s footsteps?

“It would have made him happy,” said Deepika, “but he always said, follow your heart.”

“I knew by the time that I was 16 that I wanted to be an actress. And that being in front of the camera made me very, very happy,” she added.

“I sat my mother down one day and said ‘Can I please borrow Rs 10,000 from you? I needed money to shoot a portfolio. I told them one day I’d make them proud, and someday I’d repay them.”

Ellen pointed out that with 30 films under her belt — a number Deepika said she hasn’t kept track of — she surely must have repaid her parents many times over by now.

Which brought them to her latest film — xXx — and how she snagged the role opposite action star Vin Diesel. As Deepika narrated the series of incidents that led up to her being signed on — although she wasn’t really ‘signed on’, more like a photo shoot tat announced she was ‘in’ the project, Ellen also quizzed her about her chemistry with Diesel.

“It’s all in my head!” Deepika said, laughing. “So in my head I think, like yeah, we are together and we have this amazing chemistry, and we live together and we have these amazing babies! But it’s all in my head.”